Marino and his team of 30 artists started the laborious process by taking digital scans of both Klum and Kaulitz’s bodies and faces. “We began by digitally printing their bodies, and digitally sculpting E.T.’s various parts—arms, legs, feet,” says Marino. “Then, we puzzled everything together to make sure they lined up and fit. We 3D-printed all the sculptures, molded them, cast them in foam latex, and reinforced them with spandex. We then glued the pieces to their faces, and blended them into the body.” The team crafted every single detail from scratch—right down to the otherworldly eyeballs, teeth, tongues, and fingernails. “Everything was finished with a full airbrush job,” Marino says.
The main challenge, of course, was nailing the exact scales of the E.T.s, who are meant to be mini-sized. “E.T. is much smaller than a regular human, so we had to create an illusion to position their body on both mine and Tom’s,” says Klum. “It was tricky, but we figured it out.” To make things even more difficult, Marino and his team had the added challenge of making both looks fully animatronic, too. “We had to design a head rig to balance on their heads without being too heavy,” says Marino. For Klum, this proved to be the most difficult thing to navigate while in-costume. “Balancing the headpiece was one of the biggest challenges,” she says. “It had to be secure without being too heavy, as I wore it for hours. We also used detailed airbrushing to blend the costume seamlessly with our faces; This was a long, meticulous process, but it was worth it.”
Photo: Max Montgomery